1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to truck bed cover apparatus, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved extensible and retractable cover apparatus which is normally biased to cover a truck bed and is effective to smoothly retract the truck cover by means of a guide surface for efficient storage of same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of truck cover apparatus is well known in the prior art. As may be appreciated, these devices have normally been associated with bulky and awkward retracting and extending devices which attempt to store truck covers in a variety of fashions, all of which tend to prematurely wear out covering material, generally of a fabric-like construction. In this connection, there have been several attempts to develop truck cover apparatus that may efficiently extend and retract covering material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,603 to Fenton presents a covering assembly for a truck body including an elongate skeleton structure overlying the open cavity of said truck body with an associated cable and pulley structure to direct a foldable according pleated covering over said truck bodies. The elaborate structure required limits access to a truck body interior and a complex orientation of pulleys and cables renders this organization somewhat less desirable in many applications. Furthermore, the gathered up covering when secured in its retractable position tends to collect dirt and moisture as well as tend to buffet during driving due to wind and effecting accelerated wear and tear of said covering material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,840 to Woodard illustrates an improvement in the field of truck coverings wherein an elongate pair of boom elements covers a truck body upon release of tension to support cables by means of spring tension. When retraction of said covering material is desired, a winch-like arrangement gathers up the cables and accordingly gathers up the covering material. The thusly gathered covering material suffers the same deficiencies as in the Fenton patent in that this type of according-like gathering develops a series of parallel pouches for the containment of moisture and dirt and erosion of covering fabric is greatly accelerated particularly when a vehicle is driven with the fabric so gathered whereby the buffeting action of wind upon such covering material understandably has to prematurely disintegrate the structural integrity of such fabric-like structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,351 to Peteretti sets forth an extensible cover for an open body of a truck including a medially located pleat structure for expansion of such covering material. The Peteretti patent illustrates a rolling arrangement for the covering fabric and while an improvement over the prior art approaches, the patent fails to present a guide surface for rendering the gathering of such fabric material to proceed smoothly to thereby insure that the gathering and ungathering of such material may cycle for an extended time frame and thusly avoid thereby improper furling of such material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,331 to Lawson sets forth a flexible cover closing apparatus whereupon a flexible cover material is pneumatically driven to cover an open truck body laterally of said body, again including the prior art shortcomings of gathering such fabric in an accordion-like fashion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,897, to Aiken et al. presents a cable-driven means of enclosing a cargo body by drawing runners therealong with fabric-like material gathered between said runners. This approach is unfortunately similar to the previous attempts to cover truck bodies and in addition to the awkward gathering of fabric material and use of runners to gather fabric therebetween, a bulky cable run structure is required presenting a somewhat complicated organization that must be carefully guarded to avoid damage thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,539 to Cole illustrates a further covering-like material gathered over a skeleton structure whereby the skeletonized organization is motivated to extend and retract along an elaborate guide rail structure. As in other prior applications, the use of such organizations greatly limits access to truck body interiors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,777 to Myburgh is merely another in a series of retractable covering systems for a truck body utilizing elaborate readily positioned cable organizations and associated skeleton structure to guide and maintain a cover in position over a truck body.
As such it may appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved truck body cover which addresses both the problems of maintaining cover longevity as well as providing an effective and efficient means of quickly covering and uncovering a truck body. In this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.